QNAP TS-451A 4-bay Dual-core NAS with QuickAccess Review

The TS-451A Dual-Core NAS with QuickAccess packs enough performance for home users and is also able to perform in SOHO environments; the product is available in two flavors, 2GB and 4GB and while the 2GB version works well for most tasks except Virtualization Station & Container Station (Linux Station), which do require a minimum of 4GB RAM installed. The product also introduces the QuickAccess USB port novelty, which allows us to operate the server as it would have been connected on the local network of the current PC, but physically connected via a regular USB 3.0 cable; this type of connection does also require a set of drivers to be installed from the QNAP website but it works flawlessly in the end.

Product Features Part I

The TS-451A is powered by an advanced 14nm Intel® Celeron® dual-core 1.6GHz processor that features low TDP (only 6 watts) and can automatically burst up to 2.48GHz. Coupled with dual-channel 2/4GB DDR3L-1600 dual-channel RAM (upgradable to 8GB), dual Gigabit LAN ports, and SATA 6Gb/s, the TS-451A can deliver up to 213.4 MB/s throughput for optimizing mission-critical tasks while still being energy efficient. The TS-451A also features Intel® AES-NI hardware-accelerated encryption to deliver up to 205.14 MB/s throughput with AES 256-bit throughput with AES-NI encryption for both full NAS volume and shared folders, boosting system performance & security while ensuring the safety of sensitive business data stored in the NAS.

Direct access to files with the USB QuickAccess port

The TS-451A features an innovative USB QuickAccess port that allows you to complete the first-time installation and setup of your TS-451A without requiring network connectivity. The files and data stored on the TS-451A can also be directly accessed by using Qfinder Pro and a USB 3.0 A-Male to Micro B-Male cable or a USB 2.0 Micro B cable. Furthermore, you can assign access rights to users for different folders to prevent unauthorized access to important files.

USB QuickAccess/NAS/iSCSI SAN triple solution

The TS-451A innovatively re-defines what NAS can do by providing a USB QuickAccess/NAS/iSCSI SAN triple solution. It discards the restriction of conventional DAS that only allows connecting to one device, and breaks the cost barrier for a high-speed Ethernet solution. The TS-451A’s three data transmission modes not only work independently, but they also can simultaneously run with no bandwidth interference, allowing you to multi-task with utmost productivity.

USB QuickAccess Mode

You can instantly access files and data stored on the TS-451A by connecting a PC/Mac to its USB QuickAccess port and by using the Qfinder Pro application. To balance security and convenience needs, this method provides three access authentication modes. These settings can be easily configured in

Network and Virtual Switch in the QTS management interface:

“All NAS Users” (default): A NAS username and password are required to use QuickAccess to access data stored on the NAS.

“Everyone”: Allows everyone to access data stored on the NAS using QuickAccess with no username or password required.

“Selected Users and Groups”: Only authorized users/groups can use QuickAccess to access data stored on the NAS (a username or password is also required).

The TS-451A’s USB mode is helpful for users that handle large volumes of media files on a daily basis. It provides an extremely convenient and fast solution for users to store and backup data on their computers or to access data on their NAS. With the USB mode the TS-451A is plug and use without compromising convenience or safety.

Ethernet NAS mode

The TS-451A features Ethernet networking for flexible and simultaneous file sharing across multiple devices, using SMB/CIFS, NFS and AFP protocols for sharing across Windows, Mac and Linux/UNIX networks. Use Qfinder Pro to find the TS-451A's Ethernet IP address to connect to it.

iSCSI SAN block-based mode

The TS-451A supports iSCSI SAN. After creating an iSCSI target on the TS-451A, you can access the iSCSI with your computer* using the NAS IP.

Featuring advanced 8th-generation Intel® HD Graphics, the TS-451A supports 4K H.264 hardware decoding and delivers superior real-time 4K and 1080p video transcoding to convert videos to universal formats that can be smoothly played on PCs, mobile devices and Smart TVs*. With offline transcoding, even when you can only connect using a low-speed Internet connection, you can still enjoy smooth video playback via File Station, Video Station, and the Qfile mobile app by selecting a pre-rendered lower resolution video. The TS-451A also allows you to set a dedicated folder for automatic video transcoding.

Enjoy media freely with multi-zone multimedia controls

Use a TS-451A as a multi-zone multimedia system to fill every corner of your house with your choice of media. You can centrally manage and stream photos, music and videos stored on the TS-451A to HDMI, DLNA®, Apple TV®, Chromecast™ , Roku®, Amazon® Fire TV or to the devices connected to the TS-451A (music streaming only) through Bluetooth® & USB. With Plex Media Server, the TS-451A is transformed into a powerful streaming machine.

Enjoy an exclusive karaoke experience with OceanKTV

OceanKTV is the first NAS-based karaoke application and allows you to create a quality karaoke experience at home or in the office. The TS-451A offers high-capacity storage for accommodating up to thousands of 1080p karaoke songs. The TS-451A comes with a 3.5 mm microphone jack and can transmit audio to your amplifier using HDMI or the 3.5 mm Line out port. Simply attach an HDMI display to the TS-451A and start singing with OceanKTV. The experience can be managed using the OceanKTV app in QTS or by using the OceanKTV mobile app on your phone or tablet. More than a NAS, the TS-451A is a karaoke machine for singing entertainment. Enjoy alone or with your friends!

QTS – Simple and powerful

Thanks to the intuitive user interface of QTS, your NAS experience is smarter, smoother and spectacular. Its modern flat design streamlines loading times, and the intelligent desktop allows you to find desired functions quickly, create desktop shortcuts or group shortcuts, monitor important system information on a real-time basis, and open multiple application windows to run multiple tasks concurrently, bringing greater working efficiency. QTS breaks the barriers of devices, platforms, and geography to bring optimized cloud experiences and incorporates advanced features including volume/LUN snapshots, remote connections to public cloud services in File Station, multi-zone multimedia system, and more.

File synchronization across devices and clouds

Qsync turns your TS-451A into a safe, large-capacity data center for file synchronization. Any file uploaded to the TS-451A will be made available for all linked devices, such as computers, laptops or mobile devices. Qsync is especially useful for frequent travelers to manage files and always have the most up-to-date files on different devices. Qsync provides multiple ways of file synchronization and group file sharing, greatly enhancing the flexibility of team projects and collaboration. It also supports centralized configuration, and allows you to remotely erase the Qsync folder on a lost device to avoid data breaches, and even restore it after you have retrieved the device.

Cross-platform file sharing, centralized data storage

The TS-451A supports SMB/CIFS, NFS, and AFP protocols for file sharing across Windows®, Mac®, Linux®/UNIX® networks. Data, logs and ISO images of CDs and DVDs can be centrally stored on the TS-451A and protected by an integrated antivirus solution. The Windows AD® and LDAP services enable system administrators to configure user permissions by using an existing Windows AD server, LDAP server or the built-in LDAP service.

Hybrid Backup Sync consolidates backup, restoration and synchronization functions into a single QTS application for you to easily transfer your data to local or remote QNAP NAS, to remote servers and to cloud storage spaces as a comprehensive data storage and disaster recovery plan. You can synchronize files between the TS-451A and cloud storage in real time - including Amazon® Drive, Google Drive™, Dropbox®, Microsoft OneDrive®, Yandex® Disk, and Box®, and back up files to Amazon® S3, Amazon® Glacier, Microsoft® Azure™, Google Cloud Storage™, OpenStack Swift and WebDAV cloud services. Hybrid Backup Sync can detect sparse files to avoid backing up unnecessary data, and supports file compression to save storage space. There are flexible settings for concurrent file processing and multi-threaded data transfer by splitting large files into smaller parts, greatly increasing the file transfer rate for greater work efficiency.